Valentine's ice play

Ice play is a huge hit in our house. The gap after school pick up and before tea can sometimes be a bit tricky to fill. We often crash in front of the TV but I found these silicon ice moulds a the back of my cupboard and they inspired me to  prepare some ice hearts to make a valentine's sensory box.

I added a little food colouring to colour the water when making the hearts (I was worried this might stain so put sheets down - check your food colouring first to make sure).

As both children (5 and 2) could join in at the same time it made for a calm afternoon!

We had fun touching and taking about the ice, filing a bucket and thinking about what might happen next to the hearts (melting). Dirt and boogers has done a similar activity and used jelly/ jello you can find it here.

As with all activities make sure you supervise your child adequately. Ice cubes can be a choking hazard for small children. 

Language  used: cold, shivery, melt, drip, red.

If you like ice play you might like our polar ice sensory tub / pretend play scene or our ice decorations.

Valentines sensory play

If you've never played with clean mud before - I urge to give it a go. I'm not going to lie it is messy (if you have a garden it might be worth doing outside) - but its lots of fun! It feels just like mud but its clean. We made a special Valentines version.

We mixed ripped up a toilet roll and I grated a bar of soap. The Frog thought ripping the paper up was hilarious (and kept sitting in the box we were using so he could throw it over himself like confetti!)

We then mixed it with some warm water (the water needs to be warm enough to melt the soap so this bits a grown up job) For a valentines touch we added a tiny bit of rose scented bubble bath (which was pink) and red glitter.

Both The Frog and The Fairy loved playing with it. It was great using a big box so they could both play at the same time - great for cooperation.

It's great for whisking and swashing with a masher.

Or with your hands (the added bonus being its a great gross motor exercise too).

The next morning The Frog requested we play with it again (he loved it so much we had a good play before breakfast!) The Fairy noticed the mud had turned a deeper shade of pink over night.

Language used: tear, rip,stir, whisk, mix, squash, press, soft, pink, shiny, flowers (when talking about the smell).

Valentine heart window decoration

These 'stained glass' heart decorations are really easy to make.

I cut out a heart shape and laid it on a square of sticky back plastic (contact paper).

The Fairy then filled it with assorted items from our craft cupboard. When she finished I put another square onto the heart (sticky side facing the sequins etc) to make a 'heart sandwich'. I then squished out the bubbles and cut round it.

Tada! Heart shaped decorations. They would be a really fun way to introduce kids to concept of transparent and opaque.

Language used: heart, sticky, shiny, press

If you like stained glass you might like these stained glass biscuits

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